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One After Last
One After Last is a solo album by Rutle member Dirk McQuickly who suddenly recorded and wrote the album in a cabinet inside his mother's house in Cambridge, his wife Martini McQuickly joined him in the cabinet. It was the first album for her to sing with Dirk as she co-sang with him on the songs "Feels Lucky" and "A Hard Day's Shite". The album was recorded using an 8-track tape recorded that Dirk bought from his brother Spike McQuickly who needed to use it for recording an album with the light comedy group The Bricks And Stones. The album's title was inspired by a statement that Ron Nasty made during an interview in 1968 when he was asked about his thoughts on making The Shite Album which he responded with "we always make crap albums, one after the last". Ifluenced by the commercial failure of The Shite Album, McQuickly wanted to make a response to the album using his own thoughts of the album as well as Ron's who pretty much hated the album and therefore called it "shite". A working title for Dirks album was This Is Even Shiter (The Shiter Album) and wanted to make an album that was more "shite" than The Shite Album. He used this thinking process as the basis of what One After Last would really be in the end. McQuickly used instruments he found in the basement of his mother's home which were quite dated but worth a lot of money during that time. He found a banjo, a steel framed acoustic guitar, a unused grand piano, saxophone, harp, bass guitar, double bass etc. Background and conception- Back in 1968, during The Rutles break-up period, Dirk McQuickly refused to collaborate on The Rutles self-titled album because he wanted to make a solo album by himself and go away to Amsterdam to try out herbal tea, not regular tea. The Rutles forced him to stay and just suck it up which pissed of Dirk a lot so therefore he left the studio and started working on one. But then disbanded and gave away his solo songs for The Shite Album. He recorded the songs for the groups album in Amsterdam and Paris with his future wife Martini and two of his old school friends. The rest of The Rutles hated Dirk's songs so badly, Ron and Barry attempted to scrap his songs off the album and replace them with old songs that Dirk recorded and wrote which weren't released. One of Dirk's songs was eventually scrapped and replaced with "We've Arrived! (And To Prove It We're Here)", a 1962 song he wrote in Liverpool. In 1970, when The Rutles broke up officialy, Dirk then moved to his mothers house in Cambridge as a permanent home since she had a lot of spare rooms and extra tea bags for survival. Dirk and Martini first moved there after their honeymoon which took place in the French Riviera. Dirk's mother offered him a large cabinet to work on his music and to sort out his finances. He shared 50% of the finance of his mother's grand home since his father was missing for 12 years as a result of a freak show incident. The cabinet was so big it could fit about 4 normal-sized people and a lot of other things. Dirk then started work on what would be One After Last, but at the first the album didn't have a name at all. Martini co-wrote most of the songs of the album except for "Sleeping In A Garage" and "Lullaby Blues", two parody songs Dirk wrote to mimic the style of Ron Nasty's songs from the Shite Album. McQuickly's newly stepdaughter Feather McQuickly, who was adopted by Dirk and loved her like a prized possession, did backing vocals on all the songs of the album. She suggested that the album's cover should be a picture of Ron but then it would be a messed up picture, Dirk did so. Track listing- All songs written and composed by Dirk and Martini McQuickly, except where noted. Side One- 1. We've Really Pooped It (And To Prove It We're Dumb) 2:56 2. Under My Eyes And Ears 2:02 3. Listen To The Heartbeat 2:18 4. Bruised Fist Pie 1:00 5. Yankee Doodle 0:36 6. Lullaby Blues (McQuickly) 0:45 7. Good Evening Mr. Dodger 1:21 8. I Wonder What's Going On 0:15 Side Two- 1.Feels Lucky 5:00 2.Heads Up Thumbs Down 12:58 3.Sleeping In A Garage (McQuickly) 2:34 4.A Hard Day's Shite 2:12 5.My Name Is Evan Pallock 1:51 6.Badger Bone's Guy 0:23 7.I Don't Need You To Do It 0:06 Produced by Dirk McQuickly. Personnel- Dirk McQuickly- All instruments, lead vocals, harmony vocals, production, engineering, "tea drinking sounds" on track 9. Martini McQuickly- Co-lead vocals on tracks 9 and 12, harmony vocals on tracks 13-15. Feather McQuickly- Backing vocals, talking on track 15.